Why There's No Room On The Range

December 14, 2013|Letter to the editor

Robert Thorson's Dec. 12 column "No Room On The Range For Wild Horses" might be more aptly headlined "No Room In Holding For Wild Horses, But 20 million Acres Available On The Range." This is the amount of acreage no longer containing wild horses, even though it was legally designated for their use after passage of the Wild Horse and Burro Act in 1971.

Assuming Mr. Thorson was serious in saying American mustangs are less native than feral cats, I invite him to peruse our website link here: http://www.thecloudfoundation.org/reading-room-faq-s-articles/wh-returned-native.

If BLM requested that owners of privately owned livestock remove their cattle and sheep from public lands, the American taxpayer would save hundreds of millions of dollars. These private interests are issued permits to graze their livestock for $1.34 per cow/calf pair or five sheep per month. Without livestock on public lands, there would no need to pay additional millions of dollars to Wildlife Services yearly, which kill predators by the thousands at the behest of the welfare ranchers.

Ginger Kathrens, Colorado SpringsThe writer is executive director of the Cloud Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of wild horses on public lands.